Golf shaft



Oct. 10, 1933. H, L. JUDD- El AL 1,930,204

GOLF SHAFT Filed June 23. 1931 gwuenlocq 634W; f a

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Patented Oct. 10, 1933 GOLF SHAFT Howard L. Judd and Herbert G. Lager-blade,

Bristol, Conn., assignors to The HortonManution of Connecticut facturing Company, Bristol, Conn. a corpora- Application June 23, 1931. Serial No. 546,356

1 Claim.

This invention relates to improvements in golf clubs, and particularly to the shaft and the attachment of the shaft to the club head.

More especially, the invention seeks to render feasible, for use in golf clubs, a shaft of polyhedral cross section.

Specifically, the invention contemplates a shaft of hexagonal cross section throughout the greater portion of its length, but having one end -thereof provided with a cylindrical surface or perimeter, whereby the attachment of the shaft by that end to the club head, is greatly facilitated. It has, for some time, been desirable to utilize the shafts of polyhedral cross section, but

their use has not been feasible from a commercial standpoint, because of manufacturing difficulties that are encountered in securing such a shaft in the club head.

More particularly, it might be stated that golf club manufacturers have agreed upon a standard size for golf shafts, of .355 diameter at the small end. Pursuant to this agreement, the various manufacturers have all equipped themselves with drop forgings, drills and reamers, to ream out heads that are .355 at their small end, and which taper up approximately .007 to the inch, thereby forming a tapering socket in the head for reception of the shaft. Therefore, if a hexagonal shaft is to be used, this standard equipment could not be used in the production of the club. It would be necessary to either have the necks of iron clubs forged into hexagonal shape on the interior, or to have a hexagonal shaped hosel milled out, either of which operations would -be very expensive and render the cost of the finished club prohibitive. Hence, the present provision of a shaft of hexagonal cross section throughout a portion of its length but having an end provided with a cylindrical outer surface for reception in the hosel or the neck of a club produced with the now standard equipment.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in certain details of construc- .tion and combinations and arrangements of "parts, all as will hereinafter be more fully described, and the novel features thereof particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawing, f Figure-1 is an elevational view of a golf club embodying the present improvements;

Fig. 2 is a similar view, on a larger scale, but partly broken away;

Fig. 3 is a transverse sectional view on the ,"line 3--3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the line44 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section through the hosel of a club head, illustrating a modified form of the invention; 9..

Fig. 6 is a transverse section on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5; and

Fig. '7 is a detailed perspective view of the bushing used in Fig. 5.

In the form of invention illustrated in Figs. 1 to 4, the shaft 10 is provided with the usual hand grip 11 at one end. The shaft, as stated, is polyhedral in cross section, being preferably hexagonal, although other shapes may be used. The head 12 of the club is formed with the Q, hosel 13, having a socket therein, such hosel and socket being such that it can be produced on a commercial basis on machines now utilized in the former practices heretofore made standard in the industry. That is, the socket in the hosel is cylindrical, being .355 in diameter at its inner end, and tapering .007 to the inch. In order to neatly fit the shaft 10 in the socket of hosel 13, the end portion of the shaft is made cylindrical in cross section, as indicated at 14. In other words, although the shaft may be substantially hexagonal in cross section, nevertheless it is capable of being fitted in the ordinary golf club head with the same ease and facility as an ordinary cylindrical tapering shaft. A further advantage of having a composite shaft, i. e., a shaft hexagonal in cross section for a portion of its length, and cylindrical for the remainder of its length, is that the whipping and tortioning properties of the shaft may be readily varied by varying the respective lengths of the hexagonal and cylindrical portions.

Referring to the construction illustrated in Figs. 5 to 7, the hosel 13 of the club head 12 is provided with the usual socket, and receives not 1 only the shaft, but also a bushing 15 surrounding the end of the shaft within the hosel. In this modification, the shaft proper is hexagonal in cross section throughout its entire length, but in order to adapt it to the cylindrical socket of the hosel, it has secured thereon the bushing 15, whose interior is hexagonal in cross section, conforming to the shaft, and whose exterior is cylindrical, so as to conform to the cross section of the hosel socket.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the shaft is secured in the club head by a cross pin 16, and in the modified form of the invention both the shaft and the bushing are held in the hosel socket by a similar pin.

faces, it will be seen that the hexagonal socket would result in either weakening the hosel at the corners of the shaft, or the diameter of the hosel would have to be materially increased; On the other hand, by having the hex shaft formed with a cylindrical end portion, all of these difflculties are obviated.

What we claim is:

In a golf club, a head having a socket of circular cross-section therein and a one-piece tubular metallic shaft of polyhedral form throughout the major portion of its length exterior of said socket, that portion of the shaft within the socket being of circular cross-section corresponding in diameter to the socket in said head, the relative lengths of said circular and polyhedral portions of said shaft being dependent upon the whipping and torsioning properties desired in the shaft.

HOWARD L. JUDD. HERBERT C. LAGERBLADE. 

